


Nyctophobia.

by peachb0mber



Category: MCSM, Minecraft Story Mode
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-05
Updated: 2016-06-05
Packaged: 2018-07-12 11:16:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7100929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peachb0mber/pseuds/peachb0mber
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lost deep in a seemingly never-ending cave system and fresh out of torches, Jesse can no longer hide her fear of the dark. </p><p>A special request! One of my favorites so far, actually.</p><p>Original fic post <a href="http://theprincessjessi.tumblr.com/post/136536239676/hello-i-love-your-little-mcsm-fanfiction">here</a>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nyctophobia.

Jesse frequently regrets some of the things she does for love.

She loves spending time with Petra, very much so. But the redhead has a love for cave exploration that Jesse just does not have and will never have, no matter how often she goes with Petra into one of her many different cave systems. Luckily for Jesse, Petra is always on top of lighting up the caves with torches to keep monsters from spawning. Jesse has managed to keep her phobia a secret from Petra thanks to how well the caves are patterned with torches, and she doesn’t plan on exposing such a childish fear any time soon.

This is one of the times Jesse laments her crush on Petra.

They’ve been mining in a clearing of a cave for several minutes, pulling iron and coal and the occasional lapis lazuli from the walls, when Jesse makes the mistake of digging straight down into the block of iron ore under her feet. The hole opens up into a pitch black pit about fifteen blocks down, and Jesse tumbles down into the chasm with a shriek.

She hits a convenient patch of dirt rather than stone, but it doesn’t stop her from rolling her ankle and falling to the ground. Pain shoots up her left leg and she cries out, pulling her knee to her chest and swearing to herself.

A voice calls her name in a panic from above, followed seconds later by boots thumping down beside her. Petra kneels to look at her. “What happened? Are you okay?”

“Fell on my ankle,” Jesse says with a whimper. She moves her foot the tiniest bit and inhales sharply. “Might be broken.”

Petra curses under her breath, eyeing the drop they both just took. “We’re definitely not getting back up that way.”

Jesse surveys the darkness they’ve found themselves in, heart racing and skin starting to crawl. “Then we better find another way out, fast,” she says and tries to stand, collapsing again at the needles of pain in her foot. “Okay, well, this blows.”

Frowning, Petra glances around the cavern to make sure they’re safe for a moment. “Alright, brace yourself,” she tells Jesse, who’s gently prodding at her ankle to try to tell if it’s really broken.

Jesse looks up, squinting to see Petra’s face in the dim light. “Huh? What f–ah!”

As if Jesse weighs nothing more than a feather, Petra lifts her off the ground and onto a stack of stone. Jesse gives her a wide-eyed look, always impressed by the other girl’s strength. Her heart thuds against her chest out of something other than fear this time, and she’s glad Petra can’t see her face that well because she’s probably blushing. She swallows, pain and fear temporarily forgotten. “What was that supposed to do, exactly?”

Petra hands Jesse her fallen pickaxe, which Jesse stows away in her inventory, before putting her back to the stone between Jesse’s dangling legs. “You sure aren’t walking out of here, so I’m going to give you a piggy back ride. Hop on.”

“I can walk! Move, I’ll show you,” Jesse argues, shoving at Petra’s head with her hands. Petra leans away from her, rearranging the bandana on her head with an irritated expression.

“Would you stop? I’m not letting you walk on that when it might be broken. Quit being a baby and get on my back,” Petra orders. Jesse pouts, but she knows better than to argue when Petra uses that tone of voice, so she reluctantly shuffles closer to the edge of the stone. She puts her hands on Petra’s shoulders and Petra gets ready to catch her. Jesse pushes off the block and onto Petra’s back, Petra hooking her arms behind Jesse’s knees and Jesse wrapping her arms around Petra’s neck. She huffs in pain, but Petra takes it as annoyance. “See? Was that so hard?”

“Shut up and walk,” Jesse grumbles, very aware of how every second in the dark could provide a monster to attack them. Petra laughs quietly and sets off through the cave, picking her way through the darkness with ease.

They walk for five minutes without Petra ever putting up a torch, and Jesse waits another five before questioning it. “Where are the torches?”

“I don’t have them,” Petra says. “I heard you scream and dropped everything. All I’ve got is my pickaxe.” She stops at a strange fork in the underground, frowns, and then goes left and up. “We’ll be out of here soon though, so we don’t even need them.”

It takes all of Jesse’s willpower to not burst into tears. Even in the span of only ten minutes, the darkness is starting to overwhelm her, pressing in and making her feel claustrophobic and dizzy. They wander underground for another ten minutes, Petra continuously seeming to get more and more troubled.

Jesse voices the dreaded question on her mind. “Petra? Are we lost?”

“No!” Petra responds too quickly, too loudly, and they both freeze to make sure no mobs are alerted. “No, we’re not. I know…exactly where we are.” But her voice falters, and Jesse’s anxiety climbs higher.

Lost deep in a seemingly never-ending cave system and fresh out of torches, Jesse can no longer hide her fear of the dark. She rests her head against the back of Petra’s, curls her fingers into tight fists, and tries to pretend she’s back in her treehouse home with Reuben. Petra doesn’t notice anything is wrong, stumped by another unfamiliar tunnel, until she feels Jesse start shaking and hears the quiet sniffling.

Alarmed, Petra looks back at Jesse. “Jesse? What’s wrong?”

“Wanna go home,” Jesse mumbles, tears evident in her voice.

Petra doesn’t ask any other questions, which Jesse appreciates, just doubles her efforts to get them back above ground.

What feels like an eternity later, Petra announces that she sees daylight. Jesse, as tightly strung as a rubber band, jerks her head up to see. They must have found their way into one of Petra’s other caves because a cobblestone staircase leads up to the surface, and Jesse’s so relieved she almost starts crying again.

They emerge into the afternoon sun, at least an hour away from home, but Jesse couldn’t be happier to see the sun. The tension in her body relaxes and she loosens her grip on Petra. “I don’t ever want to go underground again.”

“Can I ask you something, Jesse?” Petra inquires on the way home after a lapse of silence.

“Nope,” Jesse says immediately, already knowing what her question is. Regardless of what they just went through, she doesn’t want to outright admit to her fear in front of Petra.

“I’m going to anyway. Are you afraid of the dark?” There’s concern in her voice, no sign of ridicule or any other negative emotion Jesse was afraid of.

In a small, discontented voice, Jesse says, “…maybe a little.”

“Then why do you always come underground with me?” Petra sounds genuinely curious and Jesse is hit with a fleeting urge to smack the obliviousness out of her.

“I wanted to spend time with you,” she answers honestly instead because Petra can’t look at her and frazzle her thoughts.

Petra gives a short laugh of disbelief. “Jesse! We can hang out and do literally anything you want to do, you don’t have to force yourself to like what I’m into if it makes you uncomfortable. That’s not how I want this relationship to work.”

“But I know exploring is your thing and–wait, relationship?” Jesse notices the tips of Petra’s ears go pink.

“Like, y’know, friendship. Obviously.”

“Then why didn’t you say friendship in the first place?”

“Jesse, don’t make me drop you.”

Jesse laughs. “Oh my god, Petra!”

“Gonna drop you. Seriously going to happen if you don’t shut up.”

Jesse bites her lip, grinning. “Sorry, sorry. So, we can do what I want to do next?” She can tell just from the back of Petra’s head that she’s suspicious.

“After we get your ankle checked out, maybe,” Petra answers, just to be safe.

“I want to go on a date with you.”

Petra almost trips over her own feet. “What?”

“You can even pick the place! Anywhere except a cave.”


End file.
